Making Valuing People Work. Strategies for Change in Services for People with Learning Disabilities

This report is both timely and necessary as a complement to The White Paper: Valuing People (DH 2001). Whilst Valuing People was the first White Paper in 30 years to offer radical proposals for the development of better services for people with learning disabilities, practical it was not! Visionary statements by central government are fine, but there has been little in the way of advice on how to implement the White Paper for local authorities, local health trusts and voluntary and independent sector service providers.

‘Making Valuing People Work’ addresses some of the challenges facing services trying to put into practice the core principles of Valuing People, namely rights, independence, choice and inclusion. This report is therefore more about ‘doing’ than ‘saying’ what ‘should’ be done. Based on findings from the Strategies for Change project undertaken by the Norah Fry Research Centre, Fyson and Ward's work uses a grounded theory approach to convey key issues facing commissioners and providers of services. Qualitative methodologies, including ‘expert seminars’ and tape-recorded interviews provide data on the views, needs, ambitions and dreams of users, carers and professionals. Appendix B provides a rich and comprehensive account rarely seen in similar reports of these more participant-inclusive research methods.